The Moment it Just Clicked!!

Axleuk

As with most things you're trying to learn there comes a time when all of a sudden 'it just clicked'. You do something right for the first time and you all of a sudden 'got it'.

I am interested to hear your biking experiences where you went out one day, did something and felt that great sense of achievement leaving you feeling you actually learned something that boosted your trail confidence.

To give you a quick example: After buying my mountain bike both myself and 'Underdog' hit the Afan Forest trails for the first time (Ihad never ever ridden any trail before let alone these ones).

Due to navigation issues we found ourself at the beginning of the black run. Now then...I did not want to ride back and take the correct route to the beginning to 'Whites' so convinved' Underdog' to just go for it.

Anyways....for the most part we did a pretty good job, nothing too terrying until we reached the to of a small but steep rocky decent. Chris decided he would be wise to walk his bike down...I, however, did not give myself time to think and just went for it. Well, I managed to navigate the rocky terrain and made it to the bottom with only large rock to ride over. Well, I still had my back brake compressed to a certain degree and as my front wheel glided over said rock so did my ass over the handlebars.

Gave my head a right crack and snapped one of my new £40 handle bar grips in half.

It was after that moment I realised you should never ride over a drop off, no matter how small with your back brake engaged - It kind of 'just clicked' after that.

I would love you hear your own experiences - good or bad.

BigShot

One of the main "just clicked" things for me actually came some time during my long-break from biking or without realising it, right at the start of my first proper off-road ride.

Cornering was always a bit iffy for me. Sounds basic I know, but roots, rocks and so on never really worried me, but I always felt like I couldn't take the bends tight enough to get around without coming off the outside.

Something changed though, and now I find myself getting more over the front wheel, braking before the bend, cornering faster and railing berms with the brakes off and far faster than I would when I was fitter and more used to riding.

I'm not quite sure what or when it happened... but apparently I don't have a problem with it any more. A nice feeling - especially with it being such a basic skill.

miss notax

The last time I rode at Cwmcarn about 3 weeks ago it all clicked for me

I usually do ok on the xc trail, but absolutely nailed the descents this time. So much so that my partner, who usually leaves a minute or two after me as he's faster and catches me up, was genuinely worried that I had ridden off the edge of the trail as he didn't catch with me until the next break in the trail 8)

At which point I was practically delirious with all the excitement and he was a mixture of :shock: and :roll: !!

With hindsight, I was braking selectively (as opposed to pretty much continually) and letting the bike move beneath me more. It felt fab

BigShot

Brilliant! Bet that felt good.

My girlfriend has a pretty similar tale with snowboarding. When we buggered off to Chamonix for a season a couple of years ago, I taught her from "never done it" to riding glaciers and nice steep powder runs in the backcountry. I still remember the first ride where every time I looked around she was there. Similar run to yours, selective scrubbing of speed, carving around, flowing more.

From that point on she was unstoppable.

Hope it's the same for you!

miss notax

Thanks BigShot

Long may it continue!!

giantculler

... i'm trying to remember something like that.... good question. I will get it!

snotty badger

About 15 years ago when I learned to relax on the rocky stuff. T'was round the Borrowdale Bash on my rigid Univega- I was knackerd and stopped using the "death grip" and just picked up a load of speed. Caught a mate that I'd never been able to keep up with on the downs before

NDawn

My fingers clicked the moment I hit the ground coming off a steep descent

But seriously, I still remember the exact moment and place that I learnt to ride a bike. It simply clicked. One moment I was struggling to stay upright the next I was riding down a small hill with no problem balance wise.

asquithea

Sadly it's not clicked for me yet. Still find myself grabbing fistfuls of brake on pretty much any significant slope, when I know damn well that if I could just MTFU and commit, the bike would fly down without any issues.

Starting to wonder if I should switch away from flats so it's harder for me to put my feet down. :roll:

Frodo1095

Had a similair sort of thing a few weeks back when doing a fairly easy trail I have ridden loads of times before, but for some reason this time everything flowed smmothly from one corner to the next, I never used the brakes once, the bike just went where I wanted it to without any effort, was awesome, not quite sure what happened but gave me a huge buzz.
Hope to get that feeling more often

stubs

Me and a mate drove 2 hours to Penmachno it was freezing cold and blowing a gale nearly caught our deaths in the car park. If it hadnt been such a long drive we would have turned round and gone home so we decided to MTFU and get on riding. About a quarter of the way round just before the start of loop 2 we had a breather standing under a tree shivering trying to eat an energy bar and watching sleet blow past horizontally. We decided we would carry on a bit to the road back to Penmachno village and wimp out back to the car.

Off we went into the sleet I dont know what was in the energy bar but suddenly where we had been riding like 2 frozen lumps with teflon tyres we were screaming into corners hammering climbs and having a great time. Turned into one of my all time best rides and certainly the fastest I have ever ridden both loops of Penmachno. Driving home in a blizzard wasnt fun though.

Anonymous

my eureka moment was a trip to wales, it was the hardest riding i have done and i was very much on the limit of my ability.

ive read all of the articles, watched all of the vids and know exactly how to ride well, i just cant do it! the challenges in wales (CYB and Penmach) taught me more in 2 days than all of the riding i had done in 4 years. i cnt wait to go back, i wish it wasnt so far away!*


*same with scotland, its bout time yo moved closer to kent.

Quirrel

wrong thread, too many tabs open and one too many Friday coolers

bennett_346

I only got into serious riding around march this year, and this evenings short 20 miler has made me realise how much my skills have improved, i guess you could say things in general just clicked into place tonight.

gregmorris234

surprising how much these clicks happen in Wales.

paul.skibum

riding with a mate who told me to not use the rear brake - he used to race DH and said he never used his rear brake - I asked him why he had it and he responded saying he didnt know, it hadnt worked for two years. We were on a DH track in the Alps at the time.

Ride with some one better who is able to verbalise why they are faster will always give you an insight I think. I stopped getting pinch punctures so often as a result.

Axleuk

gregmorris234 wrote:

surprising how much these clicks happen in Wales.

Suprising how many Greg Morris' I know

nicklouse

mine was when the stabilisers came off.

it was so much easier.

Willrideforcake

Mine came at Chicksands, on the DS drop-off. Now, I KNOW it's not big, but every time I came up to it I'd haul on the anchors to a virtual standstill, then roll down the edge. I got so hacked off with this that I finally decided to just go for it, lifted the front wheel a bit and hit it with a bit of pace. Now it's not a problem, and am even hitting the jumps with a bit if commitment and getting modest air.